Thursday, March 19, 2009

The Departed

Posted by: Ashay K, India.

There was a time when the famous white shirts used to inspire fear in the hearts of the opposite team. Ironically, white symbolized Peace back then, but the whites at the Santiago Bernabeu symbolized anything but. White still symbolizes Peace, we’re at Peace as well; which is all very good had it not been for the fact that we’ve been eliminated early on in the Copa Del Rey (again!) and have been eliminated in the round of 16 in UCL (again!) for the 5th consecutive time conceding 5 goals over 2 legs in what amounts to as our worst exit from the UCL for some years.

Was this expected? I yet have to meet a single madridista who answered “no” with complete vehemence to this question. We all expected this to happen, because we all knew of the problems brewing just under the surface. We kept telling ourselves “If it aint broke, don’t fix it”. What we conveniently tried to ignore that we were indeed broken all this while. La Pelicula, without wings; and we expected it to fly. The loss to Liverpool, as labeled by the press “was on the worst shock defeats for Real Madrid”.

Worst? Yes. Shock? No.

We always took all the negative newsbytes with a pinch of salt, laughing some of them off with arrogance. And by God, we did have the right to be arrogant. We were the Royal Madrid. An epitome of grandeur and that which symbolized the best there ever is. We ignored the trouble and mismanagement brewing up. We chose not to do anything about the twisted agendas of people managing the club for the past 5 years. We chose to ignore our youth and lose our footballing philosophy. Until that 4-0 loss against Liverpool. It was the jolt that Real Madrid needed, has needed since a long time. A blessing in disguise? Who knows. But one thing is for certain. We have woken up. We have realized that we are collectively responsible for the loss of our identity as a club. We’ve seen it ourselves and seen that coliseum called Santiago Bernabeu has degenerated. We’ve fallen down from that hallowed pedestal that we’ve always considered a birthright. Words from a song come to mind...

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Know Your Club

Raul Gonzalez is the all time top scorer in Champions League history with 61 goals in 117 games.

Francisco Gento is the only player to be a part of six Champions League winning teams.

Alfredo di Stefano is the all time topscorer with 307 goals in 396 games.

Center back Manuel Sanchis Hontiyuelo who played between 1983 and 2001 has the most number(710) of club appearances.

With a total of 57 trophies Real Madrid are the most successful club in Spain. They have won a record 31 La Liga titles, a record nine UEFA Champions League titles, a record three Intercontinental Cups, a record eight SuperCopa de Espana titles, 17 Copa del Rey titles, one Copa de la Liga, two UEFA Cups and one UEFA Super Cup.

Along with arch rivals Barcelona, Real Madrid shares the record of most number (6) of Ballon d’Or winners for a Spanish club.

In 1986 Real Madrid became the first club to win back to back UEFA Cup titles.

Real Madrid is one of five (Liverpool, AC Milan, Bayern Munich and Ajax are the other clubs) clubs to be honoured with the UEFA Badge of Honour.

In 1966 Real Madrid became the first club ever to win the trophy with players from the same (Spain) country.

Real along with the Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao share the record of never being relegated from the La Liga.

Real Madrid have also won the Copa del Rey four times(1905-08) in a row thus becoming one of three clubs (Barcelona and Athletico Bilbao are the other two) to keep the trophy permanently.

Real Madrid have won the La Liga title five times in a row twice (1960-65, 1985-90).

Real Madrid C.F. (Club De Futbol) was founded as Madrid Football Club in 1902. It was renamed as Real Madrid in 1920 when King Alfonso XIII granted them the title of Royal (Real)